When communicating orally, especially with the intermediate use of electronic devices, intelligibility can be a problem, especially for those with hearing impairments. Some of the problems associated with the use of electronic devices can be acoustic limitations in the processing, and other problems can result from the lack of direct face to face interactions.
There are some conventional processing techniques that have been used to compensate for these problems. These include loudness controls and peak clipping. In other words, increasing the loudness of the signal for the listener, but making sure that the maximum loudness does not exceed a certain level.
When communicating orally, especially with the intermediate use of electronic devices, intelligibility can be a problem, especially for those with hearing impairments or for those in noisy environments. Some of the problems associated with the use of electronic devices can be due to acoustic limitations, and other problems can result from the lack of direct face to face interactions.
There are some conventional processing techniques that have been used to compensate for acoustic problems. These include filtering, loudness controls, and peak clipping. In other words, equalizing the spectrum and increasing the loudness of the signal for the listener, but making sure that the maximum loudness does not exceed a certain level.
However, there are limitations to speech understanding when using these conventional speech-processing techniques. For instance, speech can be spoken to quickly or indistinctly, detracting from intelligibility.
Therefore, there is a need for a system and a method to process speech electronically to addresses at least some of the shortcomings of conventional methods of processing speech.